Rhinoplasty

I've always lacked confidence in myself and suffered from low self esteem due to bullying about my nose when I was younger. My nose had a large dorsal hump on the bridge, deviated septum that caused trouble breathing and made my nose slant to the side, as well as a bulbous tip with asymmetrical nostrils. I'd constantly be paranoid that it was all anyone could see when they met me and that they would be judging me, which in turn led to severe social anxiety and depression. I finally decided to do something about it when it started affecting my ability to get a job, make friends at uni and live my life the way I wanted.
I spent months researching surgeons in the UK (mainly Scotland), narrowing down my search by referring to the BAAPS website to ensure whoever I chose would be fully trained and qualified, before searching on realself for reviews.
I settled on Dr Awf Quaba and phoned up to book my consultation (it cost £150) for July 2016. I knew as soon as I met him that he was the one I wanted for my surgery. He is warm and friendly, listened to my concerns, answered my list of questions and gave me a realistic expectation for the outcome without putting any pressure on me to book the surgery. He showed me before and after pictures of patients with similar noses to mine and their outcomes, as well as drawing out diagrams of what he could do. He also took pictures of my profile again to point out what could/could not be achieved. Overall the consultation was very in depth, and I received a letter a few weeks later quoting the price for the surgery (£5250) plus an overview of what we had discussed. I booked the procedure for May 2017.
On the day of my surgery I was so nervous, but the staff were great and really chatty which helped calm me down. Dr Quaba came to see me before I went to theatre just to go over what we had talked about at the consultation the year prior. The actual surgery itself was fine, I woke up 3 hours later just feeling drowsy more than anything and stuffy because of the packaging up my nose. The nurses were always checking up to make sure I wasn't in any pain and giving me painkillers to manage it if there was any and I was discharged the next morning. My bruising was minimal but day 3 post op was when the swelling started, and I panicked at one point because my forehead started to swell up really bad just above the cast (was not a pretty site) and I phoned the hospital nurses department to check it was ok and to put my mind at ease. Dr Quaba himself phoned me back 10 minutes later asking me to send him pictures over email of the swelling to make sure it was fine and reassured me not to worry.
Other than that, healing went smoothly. By the 6 month check-up after the majority of the swelling had gone down I'd noticed a slight bump was still on the bridge of my nose, wasn't a big deal to me but I mentioned it to Dr Quaba and he told me it was just scar tissue that had built up over the grafts, and he injected something into my nose that would dissolve it, so its now pretty much disappeared.
I love the outcome and it's even better than I expected! My breathing has improved (not 100% but definitely much better) and the overall appearance of my nose now suits my face and looks amazing. My confidence has skyrocketed and I no longer worry that everyone is looking at my nose :D